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How was your week? Mine? It was nice. We took a ride up the coast, had some great meals, saw lovely scenery, got yelled at by a crazed Trump supporter…
Yeah, I’d like this to end, too.
We’ve got a week or so to the election, and I do not have to tell you how tense and unpleasant it is right now. It’s interesting, though, that you can live in a bubble where the election is not occupying the conversation 24/7, then leave that bubble and find out just how many people have lost their minds about this.
We live in Palm Beach County, Florida, where, despite the local residency of one of the candidates, there’s not much conflict in evidence; it’s a mostly blue county with some red territories (including the more or less permanent encampment of flag-waving Trump fans by the Southern Blvd. bridge near Mar a Lago), and everybody mostly leaves each other alone. Sure, we have the occasional boat parade for Trump or sign holders touting the value of honking for Harris at the entrance to Florida’s Turnpike, but it’s mostly civil on both sides.
There aren’t even too many campaign signs for either candidate, and there are far more signs and TV ads for the down ballot races and amendments. Leaving this bubble to go north to a red county where people think nothing of cursing out a random stranger on behalf of a candidate was educational, teaching specifically that it’s really hostile out there and maybe staying in the bubble was a good idea after all.
I wonder what this means for the news media once it’s all over. At least, I hope it’ll be over with the election results and not the beginning of another cycle of election fraud claims. Can we assume it’ll be over at some point, and we’ll move on, or is the country permanently fractured? Because if it’s the latter, it’ll change what the news media does from here on out.
Take the brouhaha over the owners of the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times blocking the editorial boards’ endorsement in the presidential election. While their timing was horrendous and motivations questionable at best, they weren’t alone. Here, none of the three major newspapers are issuing a presidential endorsement.
Putting the optics aside – really, you don’t want to make a decision THIS time after doing so for decades? – it’s also indisputable that newspaper endorsements have become, and have always been, fairly meaningless. That some of the papers are doing so because they fear retribution to their owners’ business interests if Trump wins is just part of how the game is changing.
I’m thinking of the woman who was accosting people like me who were just trying to enjoy a nice day outside. I assume she only consumes news media which share her beliefs. She’s not looking for truth, she’s looking for agreement and confirmation. So are the doomscrollers who panic when they see reporting on polls that show their preferred candidate trailing in any category. Both sides jump all over mainstream media for any perceived slight towards their beliefs. Nobody trusts anyone anymore.
We are SO screwed.
The fear is that the way things were, while flawed – when you were comfortable that the news media was reliable (not that they always were, but, you know, in general) – is gone forever. It’s not just public distrust sown by Trumpist attacks; it’s the capitulation of the media to both-sides coverage that has only led both sides to distrust everyone.
Where do we go from here? I hope that truly independent and fair journalism can emerge from this, but I think partisan media, whether cable news or news sites or social media, is going to persist, and that is not a healthy situation. Yes, I want the election insanity to be over – if I never see another political rally, I won’t miss them – but I fear for the future of information, and we haven’t even discussed AI or deep-fakes.
There is, however, one medium which will never change: talk radio. All of this is business as usual for talk radio. Criticize it all you want, but at least you know what you’re going to get.
Oh, yeah, go vote. It’s a better way to make your voice heard than yelling at pedestrians.
Perry Michael Simon is a weekly news media columnist for Barrett Media. He previously served as VP and Editor/News-Talk-Sports/Podcast for AllAccess.com. Prior to joining the industry trade publication, Perry spent years in radio working as a Program Director and Operations Manager for KLSX and KLYY in Los Angeles and New Jersey 101.5 in Trenton. He can be found on X (formerly Twitter) @PMSimon.
